Spring 2013 enrollment at OC's community colleges

*Final enrollment figures for the Fall 2013 semester have not yet been released by colleges.

Source: California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office

With a steady stream of cash now flowing in from the state, community colleges across Orange County are beginning to replenish their class offerings after more than five years of cuts, according to a survey released Wednesday by the chancellor of the California Community College system.

On average, the schools in the 112-college system saw a 5 percent increase in course offerings compared to last year, according to the survey, which 95 schools responded to. The colleges that responded on average anticipate about 2.5 percent more fulltime students compared to last year.

The college system’s chancellor, Brice Harris, credited the passage of Proposition 30 in 2012 to the increase in offerings. The tax measure set aside $210 million for community colleges in the 2012-13 fiscal year and an additional $600 million for community colleges this fiscal year.

At Orange County’s nine community colleges, full-time student enrollment increased as well, with several exceeding the state average. The addition of course section offerings followed the same pattern, especially at Fullerton College, which reported a 28 percent increase in course sections offered this fall compared to last fall.

“The environment here is much more positive, and that’s really from all sides,” said Terry Giugni, vice president of instruction at Fullerton College. “One of the big concerns that was happening prior to Prop 30 was that we were having to cut so many classes and shut out so many students. So when Prop 30 passed, it changed that atmosphere considerably.”

Giugni and other college officials still worry that since the cuts that started around 2008, students have lost faith in the community colleges having enough classes for them. This was the first year that Fullerton College advertised to the community since 2008, said the school’s public information officer Andrea Hanstein.

“The concern was that students got used to the message that we don’t have the classes they need,” Hanstein said, adding that the college “had to work hard to get that increase in students.”

Golden West College in Huntington Beach increased section offerings by 8.3 percent and Santiago Canyon College increased its offerings by 7 percent, the survey reported.

Just one local college reported a decrease in course sections this year compared to last year at the same time. Saddleback Community College is offering about 2 percent fewer classes compared to last fall. College officials said the reason for the drop is that many students attended Saddleback during a period when other colleges were cutting courses. Now that those colleges are offering more classes, students are leaving Saddleback to return to schools that might be closer to them, said Jennie McCue, director of marketing and communications for the college.

Despite the statewide increase in course offerings, students at community colleges throughout the state are still struggling to get into classes. Colleges that answered the survey had an average of 5,026 students on waitlists at the start of fall semester, compared to an average of 7,157 students waitlisted in the fall of 2012.

Of the Orange County colleges that responded to the survey regarding their waitlists, many had fewer than the statewide average for waitlists. Fullerton College, on the other hand, listed 11,900 students waiting for a class at the beginning of 2013. However college officials said that number is no longer accurate. By the end of the first week, many students were placed in classes and the number was drastically reduced, Giugni said.

Harris said the college system is using the year 2008 as a benchmark for restoring community college enrollment. In that year, the colleges lost 600,000 students statewide. This year’s enrollment figures show that the system has recouped about 10 percent of that.

If the state continues to fund the colleges at the same level, the numbers will be completely restored to 2008 levels by about 2017, Harris estimated.

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